Van Grant offers electrifying alternative to Van Diesel

Distribution used to march on its tanks, fuel that is and thanks to Frankie “Says Relax” Maude, I had more fuel in my warehouse over Easter than I did IT kit.

In fact I had enough fuel to launch a small invasion force because I wanted to make sure I could live up to my promise of delivering anywhere in Europe within 45 minutes.

On paper it was some solid thinking by Frankie, who was obviously under the influenced by good solid virtual cloud thinking.

If all the cars, vans and lorries filled up with black gold, there would be more distributed virtual capacity than at the forecourts. Genius.

Unfortunately, this ingenious thinking when passed through the various fractions of the Spin doctor distillery, was less “Relax” and more “Panic” as the purity of Frankie’s original brew was watered doon into the inevitable mixed messaging and spinola.

This gaffe, from the bod that wants more SMEs and channel to get into public sector procurement, has put more pressure on margins as fuel costs increase and turned every day folk into human torches by making them hoard fuel under their mattresses.

We are already facing some unprecedented rises in fuel duty, recently announced by Chancellor George Osborne aka “Data” from TV’s Star Trek” and with the recent moves to flog off our concrete infrastructure to private investors, it all spells WORRY for companies that need to efficiently transport goods from A-B.

It also looks likely that the Green lobby will want to tax my fleet of Turbo-diesel Juggernauts so that my overall carbon footprint is lower. Again more pressure on my margins.

So what is distribution going to do? Well we can’t all deliver kit in Renault Twizies, but for some firms, that do a lot of distribution in cities and towns, there is hope.

They can now take advantage of the recently launched government scheme for electric vans.

Under this scheme, businesses that match certain criteria can qualify for a “plug in grant” and can get up to £8K off and electric van in subsidy. Vantastic!

While it won’t go far in replacing my lovely Juggs, I am tempted to see what kind of savings I can get for my short range mileage and what it might to do my bottom line!